Technologies to focus on

When people find out I work for Microsoft they often ask “so what technologies should I be aware of that are coming down the line?”. Of course I’m a developer-focused person so my answer is always relevant to developers. And actually it’s a really valid question right now because 2007 is a big year for us in terms of developers.

We have two big US events this year, neither of which is guaranteed to happen every year but both of which are run when we have something particularly relevant to say:

·WPF/E. If you haven’t come across this yet take a look at the wpf/e development centre. Be aware of two thing: that WPF/E is just a code name so there's a proper product name on the way, and that what you see today is only a piece of what this technology will become

·.NET Framework 3.5

·Visual Studio Orcas

·Expression product range

·Longhorn Server

·SQL Server “Katmai”

I’ll post additional entries relating to these technologies, and especially highlighting where we’re running relevant activities in the UK.

I looking forward to what you are doing with windows live because at the moment, the search is really not up to scratch and needs to be improved, (it’s got a lot off stick in the press). It also needs a filter for spyware/phishing websites.

My colleague Daniel Moth (known to all of us as "the moth") suggested I should include "linq" in the list of technologies we’re focusing on. I was planning to talk more about linq when I expanded on the .NET framework 3.5 and Orcas pieces but if you want to know more in the interim take a look at Daniel’s post here: http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2007/02/linq-resources.html

I suppose it’s worth pointing out that the list I provided above it pretty much a high-level skim, and there is plenty of detail beneath the surface that we’ll bring out.

19/20 June is "Oxford Computer Group presents The European User Group for Microsoft IDA Technologies". If the mini-MIX or whatever it’ll be is going to be held at Reading (big assumption!) on 20/21 June then surely there’s a clash?